OPEL has agreed to change its newspaper advertisements after the Competition Authority expressed concerns over guarantees to customers contained in them.
The advertisement campaign supported a marketing drive called "upfront pricing", and said that every Opel dealer would give exactly the same price to prospective customers for its Corsa, Astra and Vectra range. "Research shows that nobody likes haggling over car prices," the copy reads, claiming that with upfront pricing "there's no need to shop around because you can be sure that you've already got the best price".
The Competition Authority said last night that its investigation had uncovered a letter from Opel to all dealerships telling them, not to discount any more than the "upfro price.
"Opel Ireland has today agree with the Authority that it will issue an amended circular to dealers I forming them that, while it strong recommends to them to sell at the "upfront" price, the "upfront" price is a suggested price and each dealer remains free to agree the resale price with the customer," the Competition Authority said in a statement.
Opel will also change its advertisements to reflect that "up front" is a suggestion and not compulsory.
Any attempt to limit price competition would constitute a most serious infringement of the Competition Act, and it was against the law to prohibit dealers from offering discounts on advertised prices, the Authority added.
